RX6600 RAID Controller options

[Raymond E. Lilly]

I ordered an RX6600 with 8 internal drives. The controller that was recommedned was the AB036B #106. After reading the specs it seems that it's not capable of creating a RAID 1 group of more than 2 drives with an optional hot spare. I want to include all 8 drives in RAID configuration. Now I'm looking at the AB036B #130, but still not sure exactly what it can do.

Can some answer these two questions?

1) Can the AB036B #130 create a RAID 1+0 group using all 8 drives?
2) Can the AB036B #130 create a RAID 1 group using two drives and a RAID 5 group the remaining 6 drives?

Here are the references I was reading from:

AB036B #006 - SAS HBA (no RAID configured)
AB036B #106 - SAS HBA (RAID1 configured)
AB036B #130 - P400 SmartArray (RAID1 configured)
AB036B #530 - P400 SmartArray (RAID5 configured)
AB036B #540 - P400 SmartArray (RAID6 configured)

http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1234458826183+28353475&threadId=1112691
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarrayp400/index.html

Thanks!

[Colin Butcher]

The internal SAS controller is a device with minimal capabilities (as you've discovered).

You probably want the P400 (up to 8 drives) or the P800 (up to 16 drives).

I'd probably pick the P800 and battery-backed cache, along with entirely 15k rpm drives for best performance.

IO device support depends on the intended operating system.

I recommend that you read the HP Product Bulletin document describing the rx6600 (attached - PDF).

It's also usually worth reading the installation and configuration guides for the rx6600 and the intended modules first, just to be certain that what you're intending will in fact be possible.

Cheers, Colin (http://www.xdelta.co.uk).

[Raymond E. Lilly]

Thanks for attachment and the feedback! I had actually resorted to the forums only after reading the documentation.

The part that has me confused about the P400 stems from it's stated capabilities in the standard features:

2. PCI-Express 8-port Smart Array (P400) Serial Attached SCSI Controller: Requires PCIExpress Backplane (AD296A#300); card will be installed in public slot #3, leaving 3 available PCI-Express slots and 4 available PCI-X slots. This card supports internal RAID-1, 5 and 6 configurations.

That last line sounds like you can configure "RAID-1, 5 AND 6 configurations" with a SINGLE P400. Is that true?

Knowing there are 3 versions of the P400, shouldn't that last line read "RAID-1, 5 OR 6 configurations"? In other words, buy the AB036B #130 for RAID-1, the AB036B #530 for RAID 5, the AB036B #540 for RAID 6.

So, it looks like the answer to my questions are 1) Yes, 2) NO.

I can't find the often referenced "rx6600 Ordering Guide". Would you know where to find this?

[Raymond E. Lilly]

AB036B #130 - P400 SmartArray (RAID1 configured)
AB036B #530 - P400 SmartArray (RAID5 configured)
AB036B #540 - P400 SmartArray (RAID6 configured)

Turns out the various order numbers above only indicate what you want the factory to do for you prior to delivery, not what you can do on your own with the P400 controller.

I swapped out the factory installed original AB036B #106 with a P400 controller and created this configuration:

+--------------------------Available Logical Drives----------------------------+
| Logical Drive # 1, RAID 1+0, 68.3 GB, OK |
| Logical Drive # 2, RAID 1+0, 68.3 GB, OK |
| Logical Drive # 3, RAID 5, 205.0 GB, OK |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Thanks!